Whatmore ... what else?

BCCI looking beyond Whatmore - reads the headlines of today's newspaper. Now what else?

What is that we are primarily looking for?

No Indian Coach - we tried many in the past - lots of '-isms' (favoritism, egoism, criticism,...)

No English Coach - cannot think beyond the textbook - they are too orthodox

No Australian Coach - they are simply too good for us - we are not in a position to take it from them

No South African Coach - they are very much concerned about fitness

No Italian Coach - we don't have a sardar as captain (Just kidding!!!)

A school of thought proposes big names like - Viv Richards, Ranathunga, Brain Lara, Wasim Akram etc ... Please we are not looking for players to fill up the places we are looking for a coach, preferably a proven one. A great player necessarily need not be a great coach - we have already some tried big names like Kapil Dev. Another school says "We can run the show with a manager, bowling and fielding coaches. We just had a manager during 1983 world cup".

Looking at the recent past - We had a foreign coach for close to 8 years now. Ganguly - Wright Combo worked very well for us where as Chappell - Dravid combo could not achieve the needful - now let us leave out the reasons for some other day - of course the naming of the combo itself should tell it all - it never looked like Dravid - Chappell. It seemed like we need a coach who can work in the background and help the players using his keen eye - a technical facilitator . There were some stories, which said Ganguly could have been a better captain during the previous world cup but then it might have been a disaster as it might have resulted in high profile battle of egos between coach and captain. But now if we end up finding a coach who is comfortable with the back office role it might even result in a bigger trouble of both Dravid and the new coach shying away from the limelight. The story might just not end there.

Finally do we know what we want?

It looks like the BCCI and the selection committee has not done their ground work properly. They have given enough hints to media which made it look certain that Whatmore would be the successor of Mr.Chappell. It is the players who actually browsed through their network to find the potential candidates in terms of availability and interest and recommended the names to the committee. Its good that we are still having people like Graham Ford in the queue - Hopefully he occupies the hot seat. His style looks similar to that of John Wright and Dean Jones.It might just work for us!!!

Bulandh Bharat ... Naye Tasveer

Was browsing through and suddenly found this masterpiece - Old Ad of Bajaj .. with a tag line of Bulandh Bharat ki buland tasveer. It was very much refreshing to see it after a long long time.

The main idea of any ad is to leave the viewers with an impact. This one strikes the emotional chord perfectly resembling the Indian culture and the contemporary lifestyle. It made sure to convey that owning a Bajaj scooter is a mater of style and pride.

Bajaj 1989

Bajaj2000

Now I could not resist myself from checking the next edition of the commercial which came out in the early days of this century ... Those were the changing times ... with changing lifestyle ... culture ... trends … thoughts etc ... No more scooters ... it was all motorbikes ... Boxer, Legend, Caliber and Saffire. We were trying to accept this new changes without compromising on our roots and this fact was perfectly portrayed in this ad ... Naye Bharat - Naye tasveer still Bulandh buniyaad

Hmmm... Time for 'Hamara Bajaj' to come up a new ad with Platina, Discover, Eliminator and Pulsar..... Must be Interesting isn't it !!!

Earlier the better

Once there were three friends A,B and C.

A won a cash prize of Rs 100/- in a school competition at the age of 10 . He invested the money such that it earned him an interest of 18% per annum .B won a scholarship of Rs200/- at the age of 15 which he invested in the same way as A did. Five years later C invested Rs 400/- in the same fund as A and B did earlier. At the age of 60 all three decide to withdraw their investments . Any guesses on who got more returns? It should be C as his investment is 4 times to that of A's and twice of B's . But lets get in to mathematics.

Applying the 18% interest on the respective principles for the respective periods of investment we have the value of returns as follows

A - 392735.7

B - 343336.7

C - 300151.3

Surprised ... Yes A receives more returns...though his investment is the least!!!

Now Lets try to apply the same to our life.

Moral 1 : Earlier we pick up any habit--hobby--anything, better we will be at that. We might start to inculcate any habit at later stage of life with a greater intensity but still it might not help to that extent.

Moral 2 : Persistence is the key -- We will have to continue to pursue the habit--hobby . The amount would have not been so high if it was not invested for so long.

My First Last Day

Date : 18th May 2007 - Time : 6 PM ..... Nothing unusual about the date and time yet a feeling of nostalgia envelops me ..... Quickly checked the news ..... Bomb blast in oldcity ... Thats the matter of worry but my feeling is something beyond worry ...... India in control in the first Test match against Bangladesh .... Thats something expected and should not bother me ..... Then suddenly I saw my colleagues cluttering round a corner..... realised that its my last day at Wilco .... my journey with the company comes to end after 46 months ...... my colleagues were gearing up to bid me a farewell......I still remember the 10th of July 2003 when I was among the 3 students recruited at our college campus ..... smiling like a happy kid .... Life moved on ... The journey had provided me with various opportunities to gain knowledge, friends and lot more ...... Now its the time to say bye to all of them ..... The feeling was different ..... but then as some one said .... life is not about looking back but its all about going forward ..... when I think about it , it looks like the journey was all perfect and hence I have no regrets moving on to take up new challenges at WIMWI

After the results ....

Results are out. Me joining IIM A . No words to describe the happiness of my family members. Me went to share the news and sweets with the neighbours

Scene1
Me with sweets in hand - knocked the door
Me: Hi , please have the sweets. I am joining IIM A.
He: Congrats, where is that company?
Me: (Shocked for a moment...) Company? It is a B-School aka MBA College in Ahmedabad.
He: Oh! OK why are you going so far? Didn't you get anywhere near by?
Me : It is a good college so I am joining it.

Left the place ... pretty disappointing ... He is a student of a local MBA College... If he is not aware of IIMA who else would be?

Scene2
Me with sweets in hand - This time I will explain them in detail
Me: Hi Uncle , please have the sweets. I have got admitted India's best MBA program - IIM Ahmedabad.
Uncle: Oh Congrats ! What was your rank?
Me: (Feeling Better ...) I got 99.84% in written test which means arnd 300 among the 2lakh students who wrote it . This one was followed by group discussion and interview
Uncle: OK . So you have to leave your job here and go to Ahmedabad. When are you going there?
Me : June 21st uncle.
Uncle: What is the fees?
Me : It costs around 5 lakhs for the two year program
Uncle: So you have to pay so much even if you get a good rank.
Me : Yes Uncle. In other colleges it is even costlier.

Moved on ...

Scene3
Me - Thinking Just give them the sweets , tell them and get out
Me : Hello Uncle . Please have the sweets . I am joining IIMA. Got the final results yesterday.
Uncle : Wah beta ... Good stuff . Ab tho life ban gaya tera . This definitely deserves a bigger treat.
Me : Oh sure uncle !!! (Felt happy for it)


Hmmm... At last someone know about it. But this experience left me with lots of thoughts!!!

The best thing that I can ever find on net ......

Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
Admission Status : Post-Graduate Programme in Management (PGP 2007-2009 batch), IIMA

TR No.	5360412
Name	NAVEEN CHALUVADI

You have been selected for admission to PGP (2007-2009 batch), IIMA.

Note: Our formal admission offer letter is being sent by Courier. You will have to send us your formal written acceptance and return the other documents enclosed with the admission offer by May 14, 2007. In the meanwhile, please indicate to us by e-mail admission@iimahd.ernet.in your decision on this admission offer, quoting your name and Test Registration Number.

Retrospection

How did it go? These days the frequency at which I come across this question is same to that of frequency of traffic jams in Hyderabad. The IIM interviews are over now ... Results awaited... and yes ... how did they go ???

Pondering over these thoughts I sat down to write this one.

IIM Lucknow - Tough start but pulled on and turned out to be an average GD - scoreboard reads 80/2 after the 20 over power play and then no surprises in interview except for few things that could have been handled better the score moved on to 215/5(45) and 245/9 in 50 overs . Could have played better in the last 5 overs. Now can India win this match?

IIM Kozhikode - The GD was one of the coolest one I have seen. Obviously more runs in power play - scoreboard reads 128/1 (20) . The tempo was just maintained in the middle and end overs , I mean the interview was good and finally it is 330/5 (50) . Good match for India . Will have to play badly to lose out from here. Hoping I have a similar outing one of those big days!!!

IIM Bangalore - Most important one for me. Kind of must win. The GD undoubtedly turned to be the best one of my life . I am not sure if I can emulate such a performance again. At the end of power play obviously score was looking great - 144/0 (20) . Now just I had to go for the kill . But the interview turned out to play a dampener. The momentum was just lost. No easy runs . Finally had to score in singles despite of having wickets on hand - 294/3 (50) . Good batting pitch you never know what can happen !!!

IIM Indore - Frankly speaking ... lacked seriousness . Went into it thinking about the next game - very bad thing to do - Average GD - Plain 90/2(20) . Tiring experience courtesy long wait after a very long journey to the venue of course. Interview went good and score board reads 279/7(50) . Good total I guess !!!

IIM Ahmedabad - Lucky if India wins this . You can rarely plan the win against Australia . GD started in utter chaos - the stakes were obviously high and I had done just what was required - see off the initial overs with little or no damage - At the end of real power play - it was like 70/1(20) on a seaming pitch. There is certain amount of pressure as the IIMB is not in a safe zone. Thoroughly tensed and caught bad cold during the previous day, thanks to IIMI venue. But then the interview turned out to be surprisingly a superb one according to me , the runs were just flowing . The batsmen just kept timing it so well that the leather always met the sweetest part of the wood. At the end of 50 overs the total seemed a challenging one - 335/5(50) . But the other side is Australia . Nothing can be taken for granted!!!

IIM Calcutta - Got used to the GD PI process by now . GD turned out to be a fish market . Nothing great - End of Power play it seemed to me the score board would look like 70/2 or so but later realized that it was 50/4 . The interview started off coolly and it looked like one more dream interview in the making . Sudden disaster - a team that looked at scoring around 280 in 50 just had to wind up for 230 in less than 50 overs . Please don't ask me the reasons !!!

PS : Click on the respective IIMs for more details of my GD-PI